The World Bank plans to pump another US$60 million to US$70 million in programmes into Guyana over the next three years as it contemplates its new country assistance package.
And in the light of rising food prices and Guyana’s push to grow more, more of these funds may be channelled into agriculture.
This is according to Alejandro Cedeno, World Bank Communications Officer, Caribbean Country Management Unit: Latin America and the Caribbean Region, who paid a short visit to Guyana.
Cedeno, scheduled to depart on Thursday, met reporters for a brief interactive session yesterday.
He said the World Bank was seeking to forge closer ties with the media and civil society with a view to increased monitoring of its projects and programmes in Guyana and in the region.
According to Cedeno, the bank saw the need for the familiarisation trip since some years, but because of difficulties in other parts of the region, he was only now able to make the visit.
Training for Guyana’s journalists is also on the ‘to do’ list of the World Bank, the communications Officer said yesterday.
He said he had to spend some weeks in Haiti because of the crisis there, and according to him, Guyana in comparison was in “such good shape.” He said the trip was to get him familiar with members of the media in Guyana and to get their feedback on how the bank’s programmes are being run.
He pointed out that if persons suspect the bank’s projects were being corruptly executed, they could call a special 1-800 number found on the World Bank’s website, and these claims would be investigated.
The communications officer said the bank continued to press Government on the implementation of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) so that bidders could have redress when they felt disenfranchised with the procurement mechanism.
He said too that the bank continued to be guided by countries’ absorptive capacity and ability to repay loans when formulating assistance programmes.
Cedeno said that because of the programmes in operation, Guyana “is a very important country for us.” The five major programmes being financed here are the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control project signed in 2004 in the amount of US$10 million, the Water Sector Consolidation Project signed in 2005 in the amount of $11.3 million, the Education for All Fast Track Initiative signed for US$45 million in 2003; the Conservancy Adaptation Project, a Global Environmental Facility grant of US$3.8 million, and the Guyana National Statistics Strategy and Statistical Development project.
